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 Out now on Steam! -Valdis Story on Steam ($15) -Valdis Story on Desura -Valdis Story on Gamer's Gate -Valdis Story's kickstarter campaign from last year.  Valdis Story: Abyssal City is a metroidvania with combat mechanics cribbed from beat-em-ups and fighting games. It's 15 dollars on Desura. Aside from the combat being much more indepth than your standard Castlevania style game, it's a pretty standard affair for the genre, with lots of secrets gated behind puzzles or challenges. You play as your choice of grumpy anime man Wyatt or less grumpy kung-fu master Reina, each with their own skill and weapon sets, while there are two additional characters that will be coming in a later update. The game is available on Desura and Gamer's Gate. They're currently ranked pretty high on Steam Greenlight, so it will most likely be available on Steam before the end of the year.  GOONPINIONS NmareBfly posted:(buy this game, it's good) Kenshin posted:I really do like that as brutally hard as parts of this game are, it doesn't feel "unfair." Every time I retry a boss I do a bit better and figure the tricks to beating it out better. Carados posted:This game is fun as hell, but lack of resolution options, volume and sound being a static yes or no, and the cutscenes being slow as all hell (I can read them faster then you let them sit there) just don't sit well with me.  Combat has a fair amount of depth to it, with RPG progression, equipment that usually offers large changes to your playstyle, an assist system (think Marvel Vs. Capcom), and both characters having over a dozen spells to choose from. In order to keep your combo going in combat without getting hit, you often need to weave in your dash which makes you invulnerable for a short time and cancels your current animation, but you can only dash a limited number of times per combo. Every weapon and armor in the game can be upgraded with the use of materials found in the game world, and weapons each have multiple upgrade paths; while some of the materials are guaranteed drops, like materials from bosses, a lot of them are random drops from regular monsters. There's not really such a thing as a rare drop, so you aren't going to beat up five hundred ghosts like you're Soma Cruz, at least. Later in the game, you can use the materials to buy rare items from merchants like accessories and weird items with hidden uses. While you start with 8 spells, additional magic is found inside of souls that certain bosses drop, and each magic soul adds 4 (one for up, down, left/right, and casting while jumping) spells that you can mix and match and change at a moment's notice. The souls can also be upgraded with materials to make your magic stronger.  Characters:  Wyatt, like most stoic sword-wielding anime mans, is grumpy as poo poo and has strong basic combos. He's well rounded, with a guard break on his sword's heavy and a mix of light and dark magic. His starting offensive magic is significantly better than Reina's, and his sword has a really good launcher (usable with light->jump at any point in a combo). His other weapons include a sword and shield made for aerial combos, and a bow and arrow.  Reina is a martial artist who specializes in a alignmentless Divine magic. Although she's less well-rounded than Wyatt, lacking a guard break on her fists and only having one good offensive spell (her aerial Centurion laser), she gets an assist near the start of the game that regenerates some of her mana and serves as her early game guard break. She further makes up for her weaknesses by having a near-infinite combo (light-light-light-heavy, repeat, can be extended by timing assists right) and a protective spell that blocks all damage for a second. Her other weapons include a staff capable of blocking enemy guard breaks, a totem that lasers nearby enemies while you continue beating on them with your fists, and a slow and powerful hammer. Gilda and Vladyn will be playable in a later update. --F.A.Q.-- -How do I use Wyatt's unarmed strikes? Your heavy attack is based on how many times you tap the light attack button before usage. Heavy and light->light->light->heavy uses the wolf strike, which breaks blocks like your sword heavy. Light->heavy uses the wing strike that knocks both you and the enemy in to the air. Light->light->heavy uses the bear paw which makes enemies bleed damage over time. -Do the different characters have different paths in the game? No. Reina and Wyatt follow the same plot with the only difference being the dialogue. -What is a sheath charge? The charges for your dash-cancel. -What is affliction? Affliction is the % chance that magic will cause a status effect; each magic soul has a different status effect (the exception being Reina's two starting souls). Reina's reckoning is separate from affliction. -How do I use a focus finisher? While in focus mode, hit magic+heavy and it will deplete the rest of your focus bar in order to use your finisher. Count Uvula fucked around with this message at 16:00 on Jan 30, 2014 |
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Sep 9, 2013 09:41
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Patch notes:January 14th - VERSION: 1.0.0.22 posted:Fixed Count Uvula fucked around with this message at 08:09 on Jan 15, 2014 |
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Sep 9, 2013 09:41
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I ended up backing this one earlier, but I'm terribly confident in my ability to play these Metroidvania's.
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Sep 9, 2013 09:46
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I backed this due to my love of Metroidvanias and played it for about fifteen minutes last night in an extremely non-serious manner (as in, I'm going to restart it later and play it while paying more attention). The combat felt a little clunky at first so I'm hoping that wears off after more play; it felt like attacks were rather slow (though strong) so I kept finding myself reacting about a second slower than I needed too. Jumping felt a little strange too, like I was just slightly slower/heavier than I should have been. It might have just been that I was super tired at the time, but these were impressions based on 15 minutes of gameplay -- but even with that I wouldn't write it off, it seemed fun as hell and I can't wait to play it later.
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Sep 9, 2013 11:52
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Anyone know how to beat the shielded knight enemies? At a point where I'm stuck having to fight one and have no idea how to get through. Guard breaks don't seem to work.
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Sep 9, 2013 14:28
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Falcon2001 posted:Anyone know how to beat the shielded knight enemies? At a point where I'm stuck having to fight one and have no idea how to get through. Guard breaks don't seem to work. Wait for them to start attacking you, then cancel dash behind them and tear into them. Played about an hour or so of the game. The controls take some getting used to but the gameplay itself is hella solid.
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Sep 9, 2013 14:34
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Falcon2001 posted:Anyone know how to beat the shielded knight enemies? At a point where I'm stuck having to fight one and have no idea how to get through. Guard breaks don't seem to work. All of his attacks have a charge time, dash through him while he's charging (he'll freeze in place for his melee attacks, and the sword charge is pretty obvious) and attack his back. As soon as he's no longer staggered from your blows, move away from him and repeat. This strategy also works on any blocking enemy  e:f;b
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Sep 9, 2013 14:35
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This game is really rad but I feel like it doesn't do a great job of explaining all of its mechanics. I'm still trying to figure out what those weird mana crystals with the timers are for.
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Sep 9, 2013 17:05
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Yodzilla posted:This game is really rad but I feel like it doesn't do a great job of explaining all of its mechanics. I'm still trying to figure out what those weird mana crystals with the timers are for. Every time I've seen them so far they're just timing / platforming puzzles. Once you get the thing that allows you to use them you just hold the magic button near one and then rush to whatever door was locked. A bit more tutorializing wouldn't be amiss, though. Took me a while to figure out that you can switch spells around, and some item usage is pretty opaque. Also the fact that you're invincible while dashing seems pretty dang important but I didn't notice until I was mashing my face against Raven. E: I might as well mention that in this thread, too -- don't buy the teddy bear from the junk shop your first or second time through the second village. A Thing will happen that you may not be prepared for. NmareBfly fucked around with this message at 17:20 on Sep 9, 2013 |
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Sep 9, 2013 17:17
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NmareBfly posted:Every time I've seen them so far they're just timing / platforming puzzles. Once you get the thing that allows you to use them you just hold the magic button near one and then rush to whatever door was locked. Man I thought there was just more to them besides being puzzle things. Okay then. But what the gently caress is up with that Raven fight? Out of goddamn nowhere this game just throws by far the hardest encounter by a wide margin at you and as far as I can tell there's no real good way to travel back to places you've been to get stronger before fighting him, right? I now have some traversal items and spells that I know I can use to grab things from a while back but of course the tram is broken and I'm guessing won't be fixed until after the Raven fight :\ e: oh holy poo poo that's a hell of a bug or something. after you give the parts to fix the tram and then head east if you die to the two angelic beasts in front of a locked green door if you then hit RETRY it spawns you back into that room with those two enemies AND the Raven boss. what the gently caress?? Yodzilla fucked around with this message at 17:56 on Sep 9, 2013 |
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Sep 9, 2013 17:48
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I think the Raven fight is intended to be a little later on in the game than it we're seeing it. They should make the teddy bear harder to assemble, or at least give you a way to skip the fight for now. I think I'm a little further than you -- I had to fight the two beasts there the first time through that section and now I'm on my second run, but it's still a hell of a boss. Having the bear before you kill the two beasts forcing you to fight the boss AS WELL has to be an oversight / bug. It'd be hilarious if it wasn't kind of game breaking. 
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Sep 9, 2013 18:18
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Except that when i saw the two beasts and Raven I hadn't assembled/purchased the bear yet. When I went into the room there were two dudes, I died and then when I respawned Raven was there as well, no cutscene or anything. I had to reload the game to make that not trigger. It wasn't until later that I purchased the bear that I actually got to see the proper Raven fight without the extra dudes and he's still a complete motherfucker until you get his patterns down but even then...what the hell is up with the Dodge meter? As far as I can tell it refills immediately if you don't dodge through and attack but if you do it takes some time so you can't spam it over and over again. However it also seems like attacking before it refills sometimes prevents it from refilling as well as sometimes when you're poisoned?? I can't tell with any consistency what the hell it's doing and knowing how to dodge is pretty much the only way to beat Raven. e: also I have no goddamn clue where to go in the gardens east of there. i solved some crystal puzzles that got me supplies and gear and i see there's another crystal behind a stone wall but i guess i can't get it to? i tried all of my spells on it and nothing seems to work and i'm almost certain that's preventing me from travelling farther east.
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Sep 9, 2013 18:51
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The gardens have a sort of circuitous layout. There's a spot with a crystal that turns off upper and lower force fields, and you need to go up the first time -- you'll find a key you need for the lower path when you loop around again. It's then that I noticed the map is color coded if a room has a particular locked door type. E: oh if you see the rock wall I think you're already on the upper path. Don't worry about that door for now, I'm sure that there will be a rock breaker ability at some point but you don't need it yet. You kind of go up and to the left then end up on the ground level again but with a key you didn't have before. Someone else should buy this game or we're gonna have to take it to PM's or something. (buy this game, it's good) NmareBfly fucked around with this message at 19:48 on Sep 9, 2013 |
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Sep 9, 2013 19:43
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I found the [spoiler]skeleton key[spoiler] in the garden but as far as I can tell there's only one door to use it on and it just lets you skip a crystal puzzle. Is the item you're supposed to collect just in some chest somewhere in there? I guess I'll look again... e: also i tweeted at Endless Fluff about the Raven bug, they really need to fix that because drat
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Sep 9, 2013 20:25
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I'm relatively at the same part of the game, and had to deal with relatively the same problems as you. If you go as far down as you can you'll find a skeleton key door that will lead you to A boss that's the source of a poisonous mist. It's a bit tricky but a fun segment altogether.
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Sep 9, 2013 21:49
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Whatever you do, don't die to poison while gripping a ledge when you still have potions, it will cause your character to slowly shift downwards off of the map. The only way I see to undo it is to force the menu screen by losing focus and then quitting to menu.
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Sep 10, 2013 02:08
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Man, have any of you guys beaten Magus yet? I've fought him a couple times and I'm completely stumped. Whenever I break the crystal, he shields himself from drat near everything. Whenever the crystal is up, he's constantly healing. Talk about a difficulty spike, holy poo poo.
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Sep 10, 2013 02:26
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Holy poo poo I've been waiting for this game since the KS and completely fell under my radar. If I buy it from Desura, will I get a Steam key later? I'm so conflicted 
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Sep 10, 2013 02:37
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Arrrthritis posted:I'm relatively at the same part of the game, and had to deal with relatively the same problems as you. If you go as far down as you can you'll find a skeleton key door that will lead you to A boss that's the source of a poisonous mist. It's a bit tricky but a fun segment altogether. Ran into that motherfucker without saving for a really long time and zero rebirth stuff. Took me a really long time to kill him.
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Sep 10, 2013 02:40
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Arrrthritis posted:Man, have any of you guys beaten Magus yet? I've fought him a couple times and I'm completely stumped. Whenever I break the crystal, he shields himself from drat near everything. Whenever the crystal is up, he's constantly healing. Talk about a difficulty spike, holy poo poo. Was actually about to post here asking if anyone knew what his gimmick was  I'm guessing he's got some specific way you're supposed to fight him, like the fire boss, but beating both his guardian angel and crystal to death whenever they pop up would make the fight take forever.I did manage to get a new weapon and upgrade it a bunch though:  It's got like triple the reach of the unarmed attacks  which I don't use to its potential, at all.Xaris posted:Holy poo poo I've been waiting for this game since the KS and completely fell under my radar. This was part of the email they sent backers, which sounds like it should also apply to people who buy it later: Endless Fluff posted:When the game is available on steam you should be able to acquire a steam key for the game through Desura. Count Uvula fucked around with this message at 02:43 on Sep 10, 2013 |
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Sep 10, 2013 02:40
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Count Uvula posted:This was part of the email they sent backers, which sounds like it should also apply to people who buy it later: I see, thanks! While it sounds like it does, i'll hold off until Endless 100% confirms it for buyers because I'm a Steam-whore 
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Sep 10, 2013 03:05
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This is really a great game. drat.
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Sep 10, 2013 06:18
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Souai posted:Whatever you do, don't die to poison while gripping a ledge when you still have potions, it will cause your character to slowly shift downwards off of the map. Dang. Well, if you tweet bugs @EndlessFluff they'll take note and respond to you.
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Sep 10, 2013 13:15
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I made an avatar sized version of the Corgi's portrait   On Reina, the reckoning skills + totem is a pretty obscenely good combo. It's so hard to plan out your skill tree when it's the only permanent choice you make in character development, though.
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Sep 10, 2013 14:55
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After playing an hour, this seems pretty good. One design choice I do not appreciate at all though, is how you can get stat boosts from bosses by doing well. But you can't try again if you win. So what he hell is even the point of grading you if can't try for a better grade? And, if you're good enough to get the A or S rank on your first try, you probably aren't even going to need those bonuses. It's pretty minor but it really bothers me every time I beat a boss and see E. Also, the controls really take some getting used to. In fact, I'm still not good at all with them. Especially I constantly mix up my spellcasting and combocanceling. Especially while trying to cast your down spell the cancel tends to come out instead and then you're probably getting hit. I'm not a huge fan of games with complex controls you have to learn (i.e. fighting games, DMC) but I think I'll have to manage because of my love of the genre.
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Sep 10, 2013 16:15
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I'm finding it way too easy to just fire off too many spells at once and then screw yourself out of mana.
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Sep 10, 2013 16:18
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Amppelix posted:After playing an hour, this seems pretty good. One design choice I do not appreciate at all though, is how you can get stat boosts from bosses by doing well. But you can't try again if you win. So what he hell is even the point of grading you if can't try for a better grade? And, if you're good enough to get the A or S rank on your first try, you probably aren't even going to need those bonuses. It's pretty minor but it really bothers me every time I beat a boss and see E. Oh wow that sounds loving awful.
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Sep 10, 2013 16:20
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AlmightyBob posted:Oh wow that sounds loving awful. Yeah that's probably the biggest gripe I have with this game. It would be so much better if you could retry after a successful boss fight. Has anyone unlocked one of the other two characters? What do they play like?
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Sep 10, 2013 16:24
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I mean, this game looks cool, and I LOVE Metroidvanias and will most likely end up buying this, but punishing you for not being great at a boss fight is gonna gently caress me over.
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Sep 10, 2013 16:30
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AlmightyBob posted:I mean, this game looks cool, and I LOVE Metroidvanias and will most likely end up buying this, but punishing you for not being great at a boss fight is gonna gently caress me over.
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Sep 10, 2013 18:38
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Is anyone else crashing relatively often? I've had three crashes so far in about three and a half hours of play, always when I changed zones or exited my inventory. I also had a bug where I depleted the second boss' shields, and instead of sitting down to recharge, it glitched into the air and became invincible. I had to reload and try again. Really fun and well-paced game, though. Looking forward to playing more of it, bugs or no bugs. e: Make that four crashes. Right after a boss fight, too 
kxZyle fucked around with this message at 21:13 on Sep 10, 2013 |
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Sep 10, 2013 19:34
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I crashed one time after an extended break being tabbed out with fullscreen mode. I couldn't get the window to pop up again and fiddling with it eventually caused a crash. Sometimes when I load the game, my gamepad input makes key held down noises that can be irritating but is low frequency enough that I can just restart the game to fix it. Got an ending on Normal just now, looks like a casual run through is probably 7-10 hours? It looks like there are at least 4 optional bosses based on the game completion stats at the end, unless my memory of what happened is terrible. I only fought one of them (Raven). I'm not sure if I just missed conditions to make them appear or if they're to be implemented later. I only had 94% map completion, 81% items, and 73% crew. I guess I'll start exploring after loading my last save.
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Sep 10, 2013 20:31
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Boy was I dumb, for some reason I thought I already checked the bottom door in the garden thinking THAT was the entrance to the Library but nope that was the bottom door in the previous town. No wonder I was lost. And I just beat Shu Gorth or whatever his name is and after Raven goddamn does this game has a hard-on for poison attacks. Argh. One thing about the combat in this game I don't like and/or I'm not sure is on purpose is all of the loving juggle attacks. Every boss so far and a few regular enemies have these attacks that hit so goddamn fast that you can lose your entire life bar in one swipe since there doesn't seem to be a limit to how quickly you can get hit over and over again. Raven slam shockwave and Shu Gorth's fountain attack are examples of this and I'm not sure I like it. e: but is it a glitch that not all items i collect show up in my inventory? i bought some scroll that's not in there and i've found some armor that doesn't show either. is there a second page or something i can't see? Yodzilla fucked around with this message at 00:25 on Sep 11, 2013 |
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Sep 10, 2013 23:55
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Oh my God this game goes nuts with angels and demons just beating the poo poo out of each other everywhere. That's really cool.
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Sep 11, 2013 00:36
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I'm gonna triple post here and I don't even give a gently caress because I gotta vent. Valdis Story you're gorgeous and you have some great things going on but there's a goddamn reason bosses in Castlevania are clearly marked behind special doors. There's absolutely no indication in this game when a boss fight is going to crop up so if you're stuck on a tough fight and don't have the spells you want equipped you have to do it every single goddamn time you retry. And holy gently caress what is with the retry system?? With the bosses the way the are now and with dying not doing anything except making you start the room over again there's absolutely no danger to exploring so your only chance of losing progress is not being able to beat a boss and forcing you to load the last save instead of getting your rear end kicked over and over again. That's loving dumb. And yes I'm on Magus and yes it's absolutely terrible. Another thing I'm starting to notice are all of the homing/spawn right on top of you magic attacks all of the bosses have and with this one's weird two-stage shield system and ability to heal itself completely on top of platforming to get to the things you're supposed to attack I'm aggravated out of my goddamn mind. What does the rock do? What does the angel do? Why can the boss heal itself completely when both of those things are broken?? gently caress I'm glad I didn't play this game on Hard.
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Sep 11, 2013 01:37
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Yodzilla posted:but is it a glitch that not all items i collect show up in my inventory? i bought some scroll that's not in there and i've found some armor that doesn't show either. is there a second page or something i can't see? Equipment is only viewable in the category they belong to (I think the master's scroll you can't see at all, it just adds another cancel dash). Hit the button on the armor you have selected and you can see your other armors. You also won't see any poison enemies for a long time once you're done with the Raven. e: quote:And yes I'm on Magus and yes it's absolutely terrible. Another thing I'm starting to notice are all of the homing/spawn right on top of you magic attacks all of the bosses have and with this one's weird two-stage shield system and ability to heal itself completely on top of platforming to get to the things you're supposed to attack I'm aggravated out of my goddamn mind. What does the rock do? What does the angel do? Why can the boss heal itself completely when both of those things are broken?? gently caress I'm glad I didn't play this game on Hard. Magus is actually an optional boss, and she seems to disappear completely if you beat the electrical boss before her. I never actually beat her, but there's 3 gimmicks to the fight: Magus herself converts any buffs you have on yourself in to healing, so you can't enchant your weapon or use anything that gives you a buff (she'll say something like "YOUR POWER IS MINE" when she strips it). The angel gives her the invulnerable shield, and is very weak to dark magic. The crystal heals her over time, and is weak to physical damage. Count Uvula fucked around with this message at 01:45 on Sep 11, 2013 |
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Sep 11, 2013 01:38
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The scrolls just show up on the HUD as your dodge meter thing, I think. The inventory doesn't hold weapons/armor/accessories you have to equip on the status screen to see what you have with those parts. Is S rank the highest rank on a boss, or do you get SSS or something for 3 S's? I get hit a ton so the best I've ever done on any fight is SAS for overall S. I'm also curious what triggers certain events later and what you have to do to get 100% in the fourth category, I wasn't paying great attention in the second half of the game. That the game shows a percentage for it at all makes me assume it's possible to do something about it.
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Sep 11, 2013 01:38
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Count Uvula posted:Magus is actually an optional boss, and she seems to disappear completely if you beat the electrical boss before her.  Well gently caress.Count Uvula posted:Equipment is only viewable in the category they belong to (I think the master's scroll you can't see at all, it just adds another cancel dash). Hit the button on the armor you have selected and you can see your other armors. You also won't see any poison enemies for a long time once you're done with the Raven. Argh I didn't even know there was a separate armor menu. The first bit of "broken" armor I picked up went into my normal inventory so I figured that's where all equipment pieces go.
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Sep 11, 2013 02:37
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Yodzilla posted:Argh I didn't even know there was a separate armor menu. The first bit of "broken" armor I picked up went into my normal inventory so I figured that's where all equipment pieces go. It'd also help explain all the trouble you've been having; the paladin's armor or whatever gives you something like 15 armor and 5 m. resist on top of a damage bonus.
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Sep 11, 2013 02:46
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Yodzilla posted:e: also i tweeted at Endless Fluff about the Raven bug, they really need to fix that because drat Souai posted:Whatever you do, don't die to poison while gripping a ledge when you still have potions, it will cause your character to slowly shift downwards off of the map. Well, this is a good sign: quote:Sep 9 2013, 4:46pm - VERSION: 1.0.0.16
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Sep 11, 2013 04:19
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